MAJOR changes to Genie+!

[mikalkwin]

One good thing about this switch is that starting January 1, 2023 - nobody will have Genie+ pre-paid on their tickets.

UK/IE/Europe websites have already sold 2023 packages with tickets that include genie+

UK is losing the pre discounted genie price

What do you mean by that?

 

[reddog21]

It's not. I was just pointing that out because for some reason a lot of people seem to misremember Fastpass+ in that long lines didn't exist with it when that wasn't the case at all. I see it all the time on here and on other Disney discussion pages. Genie+ and Fastpass+ clog up the standby line in the exact same way and you get the added bonus of Disney making their system more complicated and frustrating. For other parks, I noticed that Universal did a better job balancing the Express vs standby line.

Totally understand I was just saying the standby issue is a thing in every theme park so people by now should be used the standby line slows with any type of express pass.
Universal has a good balance because it's priced astronomically during the peak times.

Putting any time of cap on an "lighting lane" would be a disaster.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I have here in WDW since last Thursday and when I buy Genie+ it is usually the morning of my visit right before booking starts at 7. I have never not been able to purchase it, so I don’t think that is really an issue.

That’s becuase they don’t cap it right now. This announcement included details that they plan on capping it.

 

[Beer Me]

IDK. Universal does dynamic pricing for EP, caps it, and allows advance purchase for it.

I’m sure it sells out sometimes but it seems to always be available the day of. Of course it can cost nearly $200 per person per day which keeps demand down. But they also offer it as a “free” perk if you stay at a deluxe hotel which makes it a great deal.

Demand is so much higher at Disney I can’t see them adopting this model. If they did it would probably cost double what Universal charges and still be an instant sell out.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

I have here in WDW since last Thursday and when I buy Genie+ it is usually the morning of my visit right before booking starts at 7. I have never not been able to purchase it, so I don’t think that is really an issue.

But that's because, until this point, Disney has not capped Genie+ sales. Until now, they had made it clear that Genie+ never sells out, and anyone who wants to give them $15 can have it. The big change here is that Disney is now saying that they will limit Genie+ sales, like they do with ILL$ sales, and if you don't act fast enough, you may be shut out.

We don't know whether the cap will be so high that it will only sell out on the very busiest days. Disney had doubled down on their tempered expectations language -- "We expect that, on average, guests who purchase Disney Genie+ service will continue to enter 2-3 attractions or experiences each day using the Lightning Lane entrance when the first selection is made early in the day." That suggests that sell-outs will be rare.

But perhaps Disney is just being cautious at this point.

They wouldn't be making this change if they didn't expect to sell out sometimes. And I suspect they are thinking about (and perhaps will experiment with) a significant cap that will come into play on many days. That would greatly enhance the value of the product.

If so, one imagines that Disney will increase the price enough to make up for the decreased volume of sales.

But we know that Disney doesn't price these things at the maximum amount that the market will bear. The fact that ILL$ for FoP and RotR sells out in minutes almost every day tells us that Disney could charge a lot more than they do. But for whatever reason, they have decided not to. I suspect it will be similar with Genie+. We will see a price hike, but not one that maximizes supply/demand utility.

And therefore, it will sell out quite often. Now will it sell out before 7:00 a.m.? If so, I suspect that Disney will stop opening sales at midnight, and switch to 6:30 a.m. or something, in order to avoid putting people in the untenable position of having to stay up late every night and wake up early every morning.

 

[glocon]

I think this a quick fix for the disaster G+ has become at WDW. Especially HS. I believe this is being done because they KNOW they are going yo be WAY over capacity most days this summer. In order to attenpt to preserve the value of this service they have to control its sale. If 70% of guest are on G+ this summer, LL will become useless.
————————————————————

IF they cap it so the people who pay get to use the service for more than 3 rides.

IF they do not increase the price.

IF the number of G+ scales with park labor and capacity

IF they allow G+ and LL to be picked at park opening as they would know they above and the guests expected.

————————————————————

Then it will fix many of the issues. Anyone of these things are not implemented and its gonna continue to be a fail.

I don’t think they’ll cap amount of G+ sold and not increase the price. That doesn’t make sense- they would be loosing money.

To make up money for the loss of G+ sold with a cap, really the only thing they can do is increase the price.

I’m thinking maybe they will cap G+ sales, increase the price, then add a very very very expensive option like the Paris premium pass.

 

[Pascal3]

I’m sure it sells out sometimes but it seems to always be available the day of. Of course it can cost nearly $200 per person per day which keeps demand down. But they also offer it as a “free” perk if you stay at a deluxe hotel which makes it a great deal.

Demand is so much higher at Disney I can’t see them adopting this model. If they did it would probably cost double what Universal charges and still be an instant sell out.

Possibly, but even our family, who pays for a deluxe Disney hotel every visit would not pay an additional $800 in one day. There is no way! Maybe some people would, but if they doubled Universals costs? $400 per person per day, $1600 for a family of four? I don't think that would be an instant sell out, quite the opposite. But then practically nobody would have it, giving us the same issue we have now - long standby lines.

 

[kilik64]

Possibly, but even our family, who pays for a deluxe Disney hotel every visit would not pay an additional $800 in one day. There is no way! Maybe some people would, but if they doubled Universals costs? $400 per person per day, $1600 for a family of four? I don't think that would be an instant sell out, quite the opposite. But then practically nobody would have it, giving us the same issue we have now - long standby lines.

Long, MOVING, stand by lines.

Which is apparently better to wait 2 hours with a moving line vs 1 hour in a non moving line thats held up by all the LL people? Logic...

 

[emily nicole]

We are planning a Jan/Feb 2023 trip and I planned to pre-purchase Genie+, so this certainly throws a wrench. If we indeed have to purchase every midnight (or else risking it selling out) PLUS a 7AM wakeup to schedule rides... it's going to be a hard pass from me. We will simply wait in line and just accept we won't get as many rides in as we have previously done with FP/Genie+. Following closely to see how Disney plans to handle this.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

And therefore, it will sell out quite often. Now will it sell out before 7:00 a.m.? If so, I suspect that Disney will stop opening sales at midnight, and switch to 6:30 a.m. or something, in order to avoid putting people in the untenable position of having to stay up late every night and wake up early every morning.

Chapek does not give a hoot about people being able to sleep. The fact that you ahve to wake up at 7 am every day is proof of this. They haven’t even bothered to fix the ILL$ problem of shifting times after purchase, which should be a simple fix that doesn’t cost them anything! I doubt they give a crap if their guests have to start staying up past midnight and waking up at 6:45 am every day.

 

[Pascal3]

Long, MOVING, stand by lines.

Which is apparently better to wait 2 hours with a moving line vs 1 hour in a non moving line thats held up by all the LL people? Logic...

I will say, that is true. Went to Disneyland before the implementation of Genie+ and while lines were long, they did move!

 

[GoingSince1990]

Come on Disney, you can do better than this. You’re forcing people to be awake at midnight and then again at 7 AM, but there is still a danger that your guests might get a full six and a half hours of sleep. So why not think of some way of forcing everyone to get up at 3:30 AM every day, too?

 

[Pascal3]

Come on Disney, you can do better than this. You’re forcing people to be awake at midnight and then again at 7 AM, but there is still a danger that your guests might get a full six and a half hours of sleep. So why not think of some way of forcing everyone to get up at 3:30 AM every day, too?

I have had to do this in order to get dining reservations on the West Coast, love that 6 AM EST start time

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

How is this different than any other them park anywhere that has a version of "lightning lane" which every theme park has? I feel like Disney World fans live in some kind of bubble and don't realize that Disney is doing that same thing as every other theme park except somehow they always seem to make it more difficult.

I do think part of it is Disney advertised themselves as having things included. And for a long long time that was FP (legacy and +) so yeah if you're going to go and make a paid system for the love of all that's holy will you make it actually work? They literally have many other parks to choose from that have their own system but nope Disney gotta try and reinvent the wheel after spending so much time being different with their included in your park ticket advertised the heck out of that feature. So I'm not sure it's that people are living in some kind of bubble but rather that Disney thinks they are...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

One thing to keep in mind with comparing Universal is when quoting the higher price remember that's unlimited ride throughs. Universal does have a once ride through option that is usually significantly less (for a reason). With Disney's Genie+ and ILL options they were only ever once through. With FP you could re-ride so long as the FP was available. With FP+ you couldn't select the same attraction more than once when you pre-booked it but you could end up re-riding a ride once there so long as the FP was available.

 

[robinb]

Just creates another arms race at 60 days out or whatever day they deem. Then they have to decide if on-site gets to purchase G+ earlier etc... although I still wouldn't put it past them to make the on-the-day- G+ purchase open to on-site earlier.

I tried to buy G+ on my first MK day last week. It was a mess. I waited until 6:55 to buy it and the app was so slammed I could not even purchase it. I tried for 15 minutes with no success. I can’t wait to see how it will be when everyone has to buy it on their park day.

 

[elgerber]

I have a feeling once more details are announced, as far as pricing etc, that the midnight part will not be a thing. I am thinking 7am for buying and then booking, or close to that. I could be wrong, but I really can't believe they would expect people to be awake at both times.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I have a feeling once more details are announced, as far as pricing etc, that the midnight part will not be a thing. I am thinking 7am for buying and then booking, or close to that. I could be wrong, but I really can't believe they would expect people to be awake at both times.

Making everyone buy and book at the same time will go swimmingly I’m sure. Luckily Disney is renowned for it’s quality IT.

 

[elgerber]

Making everyone buy and book at the same time will go swimmingly I’m sure. Luckily Disney is renowned for it’s quality IT.

Yeah, I have thought about that too. Especially with the VQ in there.
Someone suggested they might go the DL route where you can buy once you are in the park, so I guess that would spread it out a little.

 

[Carol_]

Disney has removed the ability to purchase Genie+ in advance. You can only buy Genie+ day of visit, day by day. And there will be limited availability. So they might sell out on some days.

https://blogmickey.com/2022/05/disney-removing-pre-arrival-purchase-option-for-disney-genie/

https://blogmickey.com/2022/05/disn...ity-starting-june-8th-sell-outs-now-possible/

For your ongoing satisfaction.
Have a magical day!